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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27338041">It's Time Already</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiaSango/pseuds/LiaSango'>LiaSango</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>InuKag - Fandom, InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale, Inuyasha - Fandom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>500 years apart, F/M, Inuyasha lives in the modern world, Kagome coping with her pain, Modern Inuyasha, Well not opening, reunited</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 11:14:48</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>13,778</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27338041</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiaSango/pseuds/LiaSango</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After the final battle with Naraku, the well closes and never opens again, leaving Inuyasha and Kagome 500 years apart. Inuyasha decides he will wait for her, but he knows his friends can’t do that. How do you cope with losing the love of your life and think that you would never see them again? How do you cope with not being able to say goodbye to your best friend? Only time will tell.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Higurashi Kagome/InuYasha, Miroku &amp; Sango (InuYasha)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>49</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>48</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hello everyone! I’m going to try to join Inuvember with a little fun idea. I’m going to use the Inuvember prompts and write a whole story inspired by several prompts. The idea of this story is that you can read each chapter as a One-Shot for each prompt or you can read the whole story throughout Inuvember!</p><p>This is going to be a very angsty fic with a happy ending, I promise you. So please, bear with me.</p><p>TW: Character’s death. If you have any concerns please feel free to message me if you want to have more information regarding this tw.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“It’s time already,” a voice behind him said.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I know, Shippo, I also feel like it’s time,” he replied. Looking through the window, he still remembered that day as if it were yesterday. Inuyasha sighed. This day, the promise of seeing her again and being able to live a life with her, kept him going when he thought there was no future. The promise of today is what kept him alive, if only it were that simple.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“No, no, no, no, Kagome!” Inuyasha screamed at the bottom of the well, realizing that he wasn’t able to go through. “No, no, no, it can’t be, I just got her back, I can’t lose her again,” he kept saying while using his bare hands to dig a whole. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Inuyasha, stop it, this won’t work! You are hurting yourself!” Shippo was at his right, trying to get a hold of his bleeding hands. He honestly didn’t care, he needed to see her again, needed to feel her again. This wasn’t it. Fate brought </span>
  </em>
  <span>them</span>
  <em>
    <span> together, it wasn’t just for them to destroy the Shikon no Tama, it was more than that, wasn’t it? It had to be. Fate brought them together. He was born to meet her and she was born to meet him. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Inuyasha knew her family needed her, that she needed her mother and he couldn’t keep her away from them. But he also needed her so why would fate keep her away from him? He closed his eyes as he stopped fighting the tears that were starting to build up and let them freely flow on his cheeks. He honestly didn’t care if Shippo saw him that way. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Goddammit!” he screamed one more time as he punched the floor with his muddy and bloody hands. He needed to see her again, he needed to tell her the way he felt, he needed to tell her how much she meant to him. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“I know Inuyasha, I’ll miss her too,” Shippo said while hugging his side, also crying. “You will see her again,” he murmured. After a few seconds of silence, he continued,“W</span>
  </em>
  <span>e</span>
  <em>
    <span> will see her again, I promise you, Inuyasha,” he practically whispered into his red haori. They stood like that for a few moments, the sobs of Shippo being the only noise inside the well. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Inuyasha felt a little bit of hope lighting up inside of him as he realized that what Shippo was saying wasn’t far-fetched at all. He swept the tears with the back of his hand, leaving muddy traces on his face and gently rubbed Shippo’s head, “I know we will, we only need to survive a few more years,” he murmured back as he looked at the opening on the well, knowing that his two friends were waiting for them. Inuyasha knew they just needed to hold on for a few hundreds of years and they would see Kagome again, what hurt him the most was knowing that time wasn’t something that all of them had to spare. Time was something that some of them simply didn’t have.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>He felt his chest tighten as he grabbed Shippo. It was time Inuyasha explained what had happened to his friends and let reality sink in.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>He came out of the well only to be faced with Sango and Miroku’s shocked faces. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“She’s not coming back,” Inuyasha simply said, “She’s back with her family, Kagome is safe and sound where she belongs…” He couldn’t face his friends, he just couldn’t do it. He knew he was telling them that they were not going to see her again. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“But… I couldn’t even say goodbye,” Sango said, covering her mouth as if that could hold the sob that was threatening to come out. Miroku put an arm around her, comforting her</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“I know, Sango, I’ll miss her too,” Miroku said while applying some pressure on her shoulder. “But we have to believe Inuyasha here, he says that Kagome is alright and she’s with her family, she’s safe and sound and that’s all that matters.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Inuyasha didn’t know what to say since he knew anything he could say was pointless. To them, Kagome was dead and he knew it. He felt something in the pitch of his stomach at the idea of living in a world where Kagome was no longer around. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Sango, not being able to function anymore, fell to her knees, covering her face as she mourned the loss of her friend. Inuyasha couldn’t even begin to phantom every thought that was going around in Sango’s head.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You went there, didn’t you?” Shippo asked, pulling him out of his thoughts. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Was my face that obvious, runt?” Inuyasha replied, no heat in his words. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It was written all over your face,” Shippo said with a soft smile. “Today is Kagome’s twentieth birthday and I heard she’s going to be at the Higurashi temple, helping her family with an event. I believe you should go, Inuyasha.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“And say what? Oh, here I am, Kagome. I survived 500 years just to be with you but when I saw you, I realized you were just a child and I waited long enough so people won’t think I’m your uncle?” Inuyasha replied, words filled with bitterness. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“She wouldn’t care, it’s Kagome we are talking about, Inuyasha! She will just be happy to see you again! I want to talk to her again, tell her everything that happened, introduce her to my wife, to my kids… But I can’t do it until you meet her!” Shippo retorted, slamming his fist into Inuyasha’s desk.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Okay, okay, calm down!” Inuyasha said, raising his hands. “I’ll go to see her today, I promise,” he sighed in defeat.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You better do that, or I will break our promise,” Shippo threatened Inuyasha. He gave Inuyasha one more look before exiting his office.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Are you sure it’s today?” Shippo said looking down at the temple. They both were on a high branch in the Goshimboku.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Of course I’m sure, you idiot. I’ve been following everything very closely, today is the day the well will close and Kagome will get stuck here,” Inuyasha replied under his breath. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Inuyasha! Inuyasha!” Kagome’s screams made him shiver. Suddenly he was back at the bottom of the well, screaming Kagome’s name at the top of his lungs. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Kagome, you need to rest, I’m sure the well will open tomorrow,” Inuyasha could hear Kagome’s mother reassuring her, trying to make her feel better. He could feel his chest tighten, feeling the sorrow in Kagome’s sobs. He was going to meet her, he was about to do that one single thing that kept him alive for so long, that one thing he kept dreaming every single night. Kagome was about to get out of the Well House and Inuyasha was about to meet her.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“There she is, Inuyasha! It’s Kagome! She looks exactly as I remember her!” Shippo grabbed Inuyasha’s arm in excitement.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>In that moment, Inuyasha’s heart sank. Exactly, she looked exactly like the Kagome he remembered. Beautiful, strong, </span>
  </em>
  <span>young…</span>
  <em>
    <span> She looked very young. After all those years, Inuyasha knew he had gotten older, he knew he looked as if he was 25 years old, when he actually was close to six hundred years. There was no way they could build a family of their own now. She needed to live and experience other things before starting a life with him.He realized that introducing himself into the picture wasn’t an option that day.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Shippo, let’s go,” Inuyasha said, closing his fist.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span> “What? But that’s Kagome, she’s heartbroken, we need to go and tell her that we are here!” Shippo grabbed Inuyasha’s arm.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Shippo, </span>
  </em>
  <span>look at her</span>
  <em>
    <span>! We can’t go and start being a part of her life! Look at her and look at </span>
  </em>
  <span>me</span>
  <em>
    <span>! Being next to her right now feels </span>
  </em>
  <span>wrong!”</span>
  <em>
    <span> Inuyasha grabbed Shippo's collar and forced him to look at him and look at Kagome. Realization setting in Shippo’s face, he looked at him with the same big old green eyes and asked “So that means I’m not meeting her today?”.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“No, Shippo, if she meets you, you will have to lie to her about me, and I don’t want you to do that,” Inuyasha answered, not being able to look at his face. “You need to promise me that you will not contact her until I do so,” he added, focusing his golden eyes into Shippo’s green ones. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Okay, Inuyasha, I won’t contact her until you do,” Shippo said with a crestfallen frown. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Inuyasha left his office not even bothering to close the door. No one stupid enough to mess with him today worked at the company. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He got on his motorcycle and decided he needed to stop being a fucking chicken and he needed to go and face Kagome. He knew that maybe Kagome might hate him because of what he had done but deep down he knew it was what needed to happen. For now, he was going to introduce himself  to her and would beg for her to want him at least to be part of her life. He wanted everything with her, he wanted to form a family with her, to love her like no men could ever do, to have her in his arms and protect her from everything. He knew he was asking too much and he could only beg for Kagome to forgive him for taking so long to meet her again. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Inuyasha, Inuyasha!” Inuyasha heard Kagome calling his name. It seemed she was dreaming of him, </span>
  </em>
  <span>again. </span>
  <em>
    <span>He sighed. Almost every night Kagome would dream of Inuyasha or his long gone friends; Miroku and Sango. She would wake up in the middle of the night, crying their names out and then she would fall back to sleep in between sobs. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>But this time, this time was different. Inuyasha could hear Kagome walking and going outside her house. Inuyasha hid in one of the branches of the Goshimboku, out of Kagome’s sight. He could hear Kagome’s sobs and smell her tears. He dug his fingers into the tree’s bark. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“How could you do this to me?” Kagome spoke up. Inuyasha froze up, was she talking to him?</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“I miss him everyday, I miss everybody, please, let me go back,” Kagome begged, sinking into her knees. “I want to go back, please, take me back, take me to him. Take me to Inuyasha,” Inuyasha closed his eyes as he hit the back of his head with the trunk of the tree, trying to take every ounce of willpower to stop himself from jumping in front of her. He was sure his fingers were full of splinters now, his iron grip on the branch making his knuckles turn white as the moon.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>He wanted to say something, to tell her that everything was going to be okay. That he was there and she would meet him again. Soon. He opened his eyes once more to look at her and when he saw her, he felt that familiar pain in his chest that he was used to. She still looked so young. It had been two years since the well closed. She had just turned 18 but he couldn’t bring himself to meet her. To tell her that he was there, that he had been waiting for her as she was waiting for him. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Unable to stay but unwilling to leave, he jumped as high as he could, getting away from her.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>That was the last time he saw her, a few years ago. He decided it was for the best to leave her alone for a while. He focused on his business and only heard from her because Shippo kept bringing him news.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Kagome finished high school”, “Kagome started going to college”, “Kagome is going to be at the Higurashi shrine”, were all things that he would hear. Now the news was that she was turning 20 and she was going to be helping at the Higurashi Shrine for the day. He honestly didn’t think that turning 20 would mean anything, it was just a number, but that number was increasing every year and he knew that, like Sango and Miroku, humans don’t have much time. He figured that 5 years was enough for them and he should see where they were standing. He stopped at the base of the stairs as he saw a couple leaving the Shrine and he couldn’t help but hear what they were saying.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“The story is so heartbreaking,” the woman said, grabbing his boyfriend’s hand. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It is, two lovers being separated through time and space and waiting for each other?” the man replied, lightly squeezing the woman’s hand and shaking his head, as if the idea of it was horrible to him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I know, somehow, that they ended up finding a way to be together. We just don’t know about it; love always finds a way” she simply stated. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“You really hadn’t changed, Inuyasha,” Miroku said with a smile, greeting his old friend. Inuyasha left the village for a while, needing to be alone with his thoughts. He knew his friends were going to be departing from this world soon, he was starting to see the same signals he saw in Kaede. He was about to be alone in the world, once again. This time he had hope with him, which was far more than what he used to have. But still, being alone was fucking lonely and he hated it. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Keh,” he simply said.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“I’m glad you are back, I was afraid I wasn’t going to be able to say goodbye,” the old man replied, using his staff as leverage to be able to sit down, his old bones not letting him move freely as he used to. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Inuyasha looked at his best friend and saw an old man. His face was full of wrinkles and his hair was white, his movements were slower and the way he talked was paused.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Cut the bullshit, Miroku, you are fine,” he barked, not wanting to hear his friend talk about it.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“I’m not, Inuyasha. I’ve already made peace with the idea I’m about to leave this world soon, but that’s okay. I just wanted to thank you for being such a good friend; you saved my life and protected me and my family when I wasn’t able to. The only thing that saddens me is that we weren’t able to be happy at the same time, my friend,” Miroku said. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Miroku’s words were a punch in the gut, letting Inuyasha out of breath. Miroku was so sure he was about to die and he didn’t want to believe him. It wasn’t possible that he was having his last conversation with Miroku, after all those years together. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“You don’t have to say anything, I know words were never your strong suit, Inuyasha, but that’s okay,” he added. “I just want you to know that you will see her again. Don’t do anything stupid; I know sometimes you will feel hopeless but you have to remember: Love always finds a way,” Miroku simply stated and put his wrinkly hand on Inuyasha’s shoulder. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Unable to find the right words, Inuyasha was only able to say, “Thank you, my friend,” as he covered his friend’s hands with his own one. He knew that Miroku understood him sometimes even better than he understood himself. They sat down in silence for a few hours, enjoying each other's company.  </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Miroku died that night, peacefully in his sleep. Inuyasha stayed around and helped Sango and her family until one day, she also left to be reunited with Miroku. And that day, Inuyasha decided that he needed to move on and survive.  </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A car’s honk pulled Inuyasha out of his thoughts, making him blink rapidly. He couldn’t believe what he was doing and that the time had finally come. He started to go up the stairs to the Shrine, being literally centuries since the last time he was able to freely walk through that neighbourhood. No more hiding, no more sneaking around. He grabbed his amulet, the ring that Shippo gave him to keep his appearance concealed and weighed on the idea of removing it or not. He decided he would leave it on, since he was sure he could smell a few visitors still wandering at the Shrine.   </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Her scent hit him like a million bricks, the last time he smelled her was years ago. His whole body tensed as he recognized her. He didn’t know exactly what it was, but something in her smell changed. He honestly didn’t know if it was because he hadn’t smelled her in a while, but Kagome’s scent smelled more intense, it was far more intoxicating than before.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He walked up to the Goshimboku and saw her. He tried to hide his shock when he saw Kagome wear her miko clothes. She looked the same way he had been dreaming her all those lonely nights, when 500 hundred years seemed like an eternity. Those nights where he was deathly injured and he knew he needed to survive because he needed to see her again. It was the name and the face of the woman standing a few feet away from him that saved his life in a hundred different ways.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He didn’t think Kagome would recognize him because the only thing that he didn’t conceal were his eyes. The rest of his appearance was different now, far from the rogue hanyou from 500 years ago.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Inuyasha walked past her, not even looking at her. Feeling a little playful, he went to the only place he knew would get her attention. He stood in front of the Well House and waited.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Excuse me, sir. This place is not allowed for visitors,” Inuyasha heard Kagome say behind him. Calling him out for being there.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He turned around and faced her. Inuyasha could see how Kagome’s face turned white as she had just seen a ghost. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I think I’m allowed to be here, Kagome,” he replied. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He could see how Kagome’s mind was going a hundred miles per hour, trying to understand what was happening. She covered her mouth in shock and Inuyasha could see the corner of her eyes starting to fill with tears.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Inuyasha,” she whispered so low that he knew it was only meant for herself. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It was time already,” he simply replied and smiled.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I hope you like it! Next chapter is going to be out tomorrow! And sorry if there are a few typos, it wasn’t heavily edited as my other works. :) I can't wait to see what you think of this story! :)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Why Are You Doing This to Me?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“Inuyasha, Inuyasha!” Kagome screamed after she saw him disappear in the well. She could feel her heart pumping loudly against her ribcage. He couldn’t be gone. This couldn’t be </span>
  <em>
    <span>it. </span>
  </em>
  <span>She climbed down the stairs of the well, sitting at the bottom. “Please, please, Inuyasha I know you are there,” Kagome whispered as she started digging with her bare hands, as if she could dig through time and space, just to see him again. “Please, please, I need to see him again,” she begged once more. To whom? She didn’t know. It was getting hard for her to see, the tears in her eyes making her vision blurry. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Kagome, you need to rest, I’m sure the well will open tomorrow,” her mother said as she grabbed her by her arms, trying to comfort her and making her stand up. That simple action startled Kagome, when did her mother climb all the way down to the well? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Momma, he’s gone,” Kagome said, looking up to her mother. Everyone was gone, not just Inuyasha; Sango, Miroku, Shippo, Kaede… all of them were gone. They were all… dead. Realization hit Kagome like a ton of bricks and she started to cry, clinging to her mother as if she were her lifeline. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Kagome, you need to sleep, everything will be better tomorrow, I assure you,” Momma Higurashi replied, kissing Kagome on the top of the head.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kagome stood up in front of the well. The day before had been a failure, she tried to jump into the well and nearly broke every single bone in her body. That day she decided she would take a different approach. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She put both hands on the well and tried to feel that spiritual power that used to come from the wood. That power that was within the well… She felt nothing. The well was a simple well and no longer had any sort of spiritual power. That was why it wasn’t working anymore. Its power was gone, she was back in her time as if everything was back where it should be. Except… she wasn't where she belonged. She belonged right next to Inuyasha, right by his side. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Please, I need to see him again,” Kagome cried once more, sorrow filling every inch of her body. “Please,” she begged again.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>From that day forwards, Kagome would visit the well every single day, trying to sense any sort of spiritual power coming from it. And every single day, she would leave with a lump in her throat and with a little bit less of hope of ever seeing Inuyasha again.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Where am I?” Kagome wondered, she was standing in a beautiful meadow, surrounded by trees. Kagome took a deep breath, the air felt so pure. Hope building up inside of her, she looked around. It couldn’t be real, could it? Was she back at the Feudal Era? Her heart was about to burst from happiness as she started to run, looking for everyone. “Inuyasha!” Kagome screamed his name, looking for him. He should be hearing her, right? Kagome kept running, and calling everyone’s names, “Sango, Miroku, Shippo!”. Suddenly, the whole force of her body sent her falling down. She must have tripped on something, her knees hurting from the fall. Why did she fall? Kagome looked around and saw a bump on the earth. Horror building up inside of her, she paid more attention to her surroundings.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kagome was facing four graves. Covering her mouth as if that would muffle her screams, she read the names on the graves: “Inuyasha”, “Sango”, “Miroku” and “Shippo”. It couldn’t be. Were they… dead? Feeling sick to her stomach, Kagome started to cry. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>They are dead, they are never coming back, you are never coming back. They all died and you weren’t there for them.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kagome woke up in the middle of the night, completely covered in sweat. Slowly coming back to her senses she started to remember her dream. Everything had felt so real and it was so painful to her. She didn’t know how long it would take for this wound to heal or if it would ever heal at all. She was exhausted. Every night she would dream something different, that she was with Inuyasha, that she was pregnant with Inuyasha’s baby, that she saw her friends get married and have babies, that she played and took care of Miroku and Sango’s children, that she had a little girl with Inuyasha and they were happy together…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Every night was a constant reminder of everything she had lost. The dreams were worse than the nightmares. Monsters and death she could bear, dreams where she was happy and then waking up alone, having nothing? Those were the ones that gutted her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Feeling miserable, Kagome grabbed a sweater and headed to the Goshinboku. That tree was guilty of everything, it was guilty of making her time-travel, it was where they first met, she was connected to them through that fucking tree that was laughing at her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“How could you do this to me?” Kagome spoke up to the tree. Why was now the time to stop working? Her mission had ended but her relationship with Inuyasha  and her life were just starting. Since the Shikon Jewel was destroyed then there was no use for her anymore? What about her feelings? Tears were running down her face as she looked up to the Goshinboku.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She was tired of this, but she wouldn’t stop trying. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I miss him everyday, I miss everybody, please, let me go back,” Kagome begged once again, sinking into her knees. “I want to go back, please, take me back, take me to him. Take me to Inuyasha.” The mention of his name, saying his name out loud made her sob even harder. She was so tired. Every day that passed by made her time in the Feudal Era seem like a dream. Everything was so distant, so different, everything seemed so far away…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She felt the tree top move and her hopes came back full force. Had that worked? Kagome couldn’t believe it, maybe after all these years the well had reopened? She ran as fast as she could to the well, stood in front of it and placed both hands on the rim of it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Nothing. She felt nothing. No sacred power, no burst of energy… nothing. It was the same broken well that has been for the past two years. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>That night, Kagome made up her mind. Everything had been a cruel twist of fate and she needed to let go of the idea of ever seeing her friends again, of ever seeing </span>
  <em>
    <span>him</span>
  </em>
  <span> again. She would stop waiting for the well to reopen. She needed to move on with her life. Her life, </span>
  <em>
    <span>that life</span>
  </em>
  <span> was in the past and was no longer part of her. She would do everything in her power to get closure. </span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kagome was excited for the first time in what felt like ages. She had found a text that dated all the way back from the Feudal Era and she could feel how her heart raced. It was a very old book, so old that the pages could be destroyed by merely looking at them. She started to read, to search through the pages. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>This book was written by an old monk and Kagome felt her heart skip a beat when she realized she had seen that handwriting before. It was Miroku’s handwriting! It was different somehow, shakier than it used to be. Then it dawned on her, he must have written this when he was Kaede’s age. The tears started to build up in the corner of her eye and she could feel how her body started to tremble; she fought the tears as she tried to keep reading. The mention of a kitsune friend, the mention of a warrior: his love and mother of five children. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kagome couldn’t stop the laughter that came out of her mouth. Miroku and Sango had five children together! They were there and they were very real. They </span>
  <em>
    <span>actually existed</span>
  </em>
  <span> and apparently they lived their well deserved happily ever after. The joy led to sadness, as she realized those kids were practically her nephews and nieces and she never got to be </span>
  <em>
    <span>aunt Kagome</span>
  </em>
  <span> to them</span>
  <em>
    <span>.</span>
  </em>
  <span> She never got to hold Sango’s hand and help her through her labor. She wasn’t there to cry tears of joy when Sango found out she was pregnant and-. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kagome needed to close her eyes for a second and get a hold of the table because everything started to spin really fast. She needed to remind herself why she was there. She needed closure. Of course life moved on for them, of course they got to live the life they deserved. Knowing she wasn’t there for them was too painful to bear, but she needed to feel that pain. She needed to know what happened to her friends. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Once everything stopped spinning, her eyes went back to the last sentence she was reading, she wanted to devour every single word Miroku wrote. Her heat stopped when she read </span>
  <em>
    <span>his</span>
  </em>
  <span> name.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Inuyasha…” Kagome murmured, as if he was a deep secret that no one could even hear his name.  She leaned back on her chair, moving away from the book as if the book burnt her. Did he find love? Did he die on the battlefield? Did he have a family? She took a deep breath and leaned slowly towards the book. The mention of Inuyasha was brief: He took good care of Kaede’s village, he took good care of Miroku’s and Sango’s kids and their grandchildren. Kagome knew it was extremely selfish to be relieved that Inuyasha didn’t find love, at least during Sango and Miroku’s time. She felt glad that it was, at least, as hard to find love again for him as it was for her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Towards the very end of the book Miroku wrote, she spotted her name and she couldn’t stop the smile that formed in her face because she could swear she remembered all those times that she explained to Miroku that her name was written using </span>
  <em>
    <span>hiragana </span>
  </em>
  <span>only, and not </span>
  <em>
    <span>kanji</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>And I’ve written all of this because I want to share my story with the world, but specially, I want to share my story with my dear friend Kagome. She’s no longer with us but I know this book will find the way to reach her hands and she will read this. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Kagome:</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>We lived our lives fully, but we missed you deeply. We know you miss us all, but rest assured we were happy. Don’t lose hope, because we know you’ll be happy too.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span> And with that sentence, the book came to an end. Kagome felt like time had stopped and she wasn’t able to move. The only thing she could feel were her tears that were freely falling from her face. Had she just read some words Miroku wrote to her five hundred years ago? </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She never thought she would know what happened to them, less alone read a message from five hundred years ago. But there they were, words written specially to her and Miroku knew she would look for them. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>That night, Kagome dreamt of Miroku, Sango, their children, Shippo and Inuyasha. It wasn’t unusual of her to dream of them; what was unusual is that she didn’t wake up covered in sweat or crying. When she woke up, she felt happy. She felt as if she was able to say goodbye to her friends.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kagome looked at the miko garment on top of what used to be her bed. She looked around, as if wanting to remember, wanting to keep her past alive, wanting to keep </span>
  <em>
    <span>him</span>
  </em>
  <span> alive. Her heart plummeted when she saw her window, waiting for his red haori or his silver mane to show up, as he used to do five years ago. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She gulped down a sob and decided she was there to help her family and that’s all. She would be the miko her family shrine needed, only for this festival. Her grandfather recently passed away and the family needed someone to carry around the shrine duties for today. After all, she </span>
  <em>
    <span>used to be</span>
  </em>
  <span> a miko in training. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kagome quietly changed her clothes and looked into her reflection in the mirror, looking how much she resembled Kikyo now that she was older. It seemed like a door was opened because she couldn’t fight the tears this time, the grief coming crashing down on her like a waterfall. Everything was too painful, she was looking at the life she could have had with Inuyasha. She remembered her friends, her journey, her grief. She remembered everything as if it were yesterday. She was back at the bottom of the well, begging for it to open again. All she could do was sit down in her bed and cry, mourning everything she had lost those four years ago.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Kagome are you okay?” her mother asked, sitting down right next to her and holding her. “Do you feel sick? What happened?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m okay momma, it’s just… looking in the mirror was a bad idea.” Kagome answered back, trying to calm herself down. Even though she had closure and she thought the wound had already closed, some days were harder than others. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Her mother was always there to pick her up when the weight of the past was too much, when she woke up in the middle of the night after having nightmares, when she felt a lump in her throat after seeing Sota eating ramen...</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Kagome, if it’s too much we can find another wa-”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No, momma, I’m okay. I will be. I need a minute,” Kagome cut her mother in. She closed her eyes and tried to focus exclusively on her breathing. She breathed in like she had learned to do all those years ago. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Inhale, two, three, four, five. Exhale, seven, eight, nine, ten. Inhale, two, three, four, five. Exhale, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Eventually her breathing technique calmed her down and she was able to stop crying. She was doing this to help her family and to keep the memory of her grandfather alive. She needed to be the miko that she used to be.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>“This is the Goshinboku,” Kagome said to a couple of visitors. They were supposed to be the last ones to enter the shrine since the shrine was about to close. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Why is this tree so special?” the girl asked, looking at her with her round eyes.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“This tree transcends time. Legend has it that a girl met a boy under this tree five hundred years ago and they fell in love only to be separated again. This tree being the only hope for them to be reunited again,” Kagome replied with a polite smile, one that never reached her eyes.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh...” the girl simply replied, unconsciously leaning closer to her boyfriend. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kagome knew the girl wanted to hear a fairy tale about lovers reuniting, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell that story. That story felt </span>
  <em>
    <span>wrong</span>
  </em>
  <span> because it wasn’t real. She was still waiting for Inuyasha and the tree refused to help them. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She said goodbye to the visitors and looked up to the tree once more, taking a deep breath and wishing to be reunited with Inuyasha again. It was five years ago, when she turned fifteen, that she met him. Now, the only birthday gift she only cared about was being reunited with Inuyasha again. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She looked at her watch and saw that she needed to hurry if she wanted to meet with her friends at the bar today. Since she was the last one to turn twenty in her group, the girls wanted to take her out to a bar so she could legally taste alcohol </span>
  <em>
    <span>for the first time</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Kagome shook her head while remembering all those times she tasted </span>
  <em>
    <span>sake</span>
  </em>
  <span> in the Feudal Era, when she was staying the night at a palace thanks to Miroku’s shenanigans. If only her friends knew how much she used to drink when she was fifteen years old. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>In the corner of her eye, Kagome saw a dark haired man getting closer to the Well House and she wanted to scream in frustration. She was so tired that the idea of dealing with tourists that barely understood Japanese made her want to scream. Couldn’t the man read the signs that said “No visitors allowed in this area”? She just wanted to change clothes and try to go back to being Kagome. </span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“Excuse me, sir. This place is not allowed for visitors,” she said while getting closer to the man. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I think I’m allowed to be here, Kagome,” he simply replied.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>When the man turned around to face her, the wind was knocked out of her lungs. Suddenly, the only thing Kagome was able to hear was the beating of her heart, beating so loudly that it was almost painful. The only thing she could see were a pair of </span>
  <em>
    <span>golden eyes. </span>
  </em>
  <span>She covered her mouth with her hand, shock written all over her face.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Did he call me Kagome? How does he know my name? </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The man that was standing in front of her was an older, more human, version of </span>
  <em>
    <span>Inuyasha</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Was this a reincarnation of Inuyasha? Was this actually Inuyasha? It couldn’t be. If this man was Inuyasha, where were his ears? What happened to his silver mane? But how did this man know her name? He had to be Inuyasha. She tried to fight them, but the tears were already building up in the corner of her eyes. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Inuyasha was dead, wasn’t he? He stayed in the past, she stayed in the present. That’s what she told herself over and over again every night when she woke up from a painful dream. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Maybe this person was a descendant of Inuyasha? There was no way that this man in front of her could be Inuyasha, </span>
  <em>
    <span>her Inuyasha. </span>
  </em>
  <span>But again, </span>
  <em>
    <span>how did he know her name?</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A swift breeze danced between them and she could hear the rustle of the leaves of the Goshinboku, as if they were whispering something. She remembered Miroku’s words, the ones she read over a year ago. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Don’t lose hope, because we know you’ll be happy too.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Could it be? Was that Miroku’s way of telling her that she will be reunited with Inuyasha?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Afraid of breaking the illusion, she did the only think she could think of: she whispered his name.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Inuyasha.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It was time already,” he simply replied with a smile.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>In that moment, Kagome knew. The man in front of her was Inuyasha, </span>
  <em>
    <span>he was her Inuyasha</span>
  </em>
  <span>. She didn’t know how, she didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was that Inuyasha was alive, and that they were finally reunited.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kagome did the only thing she could do: she ran into his arms and she hugged him the same way she did when she dreamt of being reunited with Inuyasha. The only thing that changed is that he hugged her back and when Kagome opened her eyes, he was still there.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Aaaaand cut!</p><p>This was Kagome's chapter. Tomorrow will be Sango's chapter so yes, we are not getting the InuKag reunion we all want yet. But I say we give Sango a chance, she has a story to tell!</p><p>I honestly hope you like this chapter, I can assure you it broke my heart several times but I wanted to make sure to do Kagome's pain justice.</p><p>Like I mentioned, this chapter is not heavily edited as my other works, so sorry if there are any typos.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Every week - Sango</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>tw: Character's death in this chapter. If you are concerned by this trigger warning please feel free to contact me.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Sango didn’t understand what was happening. One minute the well was gone, the next one he was able to hear Inuyasha screaming Kagome’s name from the bottom of it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Was Kagome dead? She didn’t want to even think of that possibility, but she didn’t know what happened during those three days the well was gone. She did what she thought was best; she waited. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Inuyasha jumped out of the well and stood in front of them. There was a silence that Sango didn’t know how long it lasted, it could have been seconds, minutes, hours, she lost count. All she could feel was her heart beating against her ribcage, waiting for an answer she didn’t want to hear.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p><span>“She’s not coming back,” Inuyasha simply said, “She’s back with her family, Kagome is safe and sound where she belongs…”</span> <span>He turned around, not being able to face them. Sango felt how Miroku slightly squeezed her hand, showing her he was there to support her. </span></p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Even though she was relieved to know that her friend was alive, there was a thought that kept resonating inside her head, growing a little louder with every passing second. At first, it was a whisper but then it was so loud she couldn’t hear anything else. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Kagome is gone forever.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“But… I couldn’t even say goodbye,” Sango said, covering her mouth as if that could hold the sob that was threatening to come out. Miroku put an arm around her, comforting her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I know, Sango, I’ll miss her too,” he said while applying some pressure on her shoulder. “But we have to believe Inuyasha here, he says that Kagome is alright and she’s with her family, she’s safe and sound and that’s all that matters.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She wasn’t able to understand what Miroku was saying. Throughout the whole year her journey lasted, Sango was sure she was going to lose someone important to her. First, she thought that person was going to be Kohaku, since every single day that passed made her lose hope that they would ever get him back from Naraku’s grasp. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Then, she thought she was going to lose Miroku to his </span>
  <em>
    <span>Kazana</span>
  </em>
  <span>, a time bomb that was always threatening to explode and swallow them all. But one thing she </span>
  <em>
    <span>never</span>
  </em>
  <span> imagined, was that she would be mourning the loss of Kagome, it was impossible to phantom. Kagome was supposed to be there for her and help her pick up the pieces like she always used to. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Who is going to help me now?</span>
  </em>
  
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sango, not being able to function anymore, fell to her knees, covering her face as if that simple gesture could help her contain all the grief that was flowing inside her body. </span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Kaede believes I’m pregnant,” Sango said under the Goshinboku. “I know you would be happy for me right now, I know it. You are the first person that I wanted to tell the news,” she added with a sad smile.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She felt a little silly doing this, coming to the Goshinboku and talking to it as if it were her friend. It had been 5 months since the well had closed and she found that coming here and talking to the tree made her feel at ease. The meadow where the tree was located made her feel safe and at peace, the same way Kagome’s reassuring presence made her feel. Being there helped her think and help her sort her thoughts and sometimes that was all she needed: peace and quiet. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Even though Sango loved her life as a wife, sometimes the village could feel lonely. No other woman understood how she was raised, and some would even turn her heads when she behaved unladylike; like the warrior she was. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She was doing her best to try to adjust to being a wife and to let go of her warring past, but she missed the comradeship she used to have with Kagome. Kagome knew Miroku, she knew how troublesome he could be sometimes, she also knew Inuyasha and his ability to drive everybody insane with his bad temper.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I want to wait until I’m sure to tell Miroku, I don’t want to keep his hopes up. I know my body has gone through so much over the past year, so I don’t know how good it is to grow a baby. Kaede says that I’m a healthy young woman, so I shouldn’t worry about it…” Sango added, placing a hand on her stomach. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She caressed her stomach with her hand and a little smile came across her face. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, trying to process everything that happened that morning that led to Kaede telling her she was pregnant. Then, it dawned on her: She was going to be a mother! She never thought she was going to make it out alive of the battle with Naraku, less alone have her own family. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Without even realizing it, she started to cry, but this time, they were tears of happiness.</span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>It was a late night and she couldn’t sleep. Hisui had barely survived a fever and was now getting better, but she still couldn’t shake the feeling that something might have gone wrong and she might have lost someone else. She wasn’t ready for that. Kaede had recently passed away and the new miko was still learning about medicinal herbs, so it took her a little longer to help cure Hisui, time that he almost didn’t have. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sango wished that Kagome were there, knowing that she would have been able to help Hisui. The truth was: Kagome wasn’t there. Feeling all the weight and the stress building up inside her body, she sat down on one of the roots of the tree and cried, letting go of all the worry she had in her body. Monsters she could fight, but diseases? She was helpless. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Sango, are you hurt?” she heard a voice behind her ask. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No, Inuyasha, I’m okay,” she replied while wiping away her tears.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“Then why are you crying?” Inuyasha inquired, getting closer to her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m crying because I’m tired,” she simply said, not caring to elaborate.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I thought of her too, you know? When I saw the new miko wasn’t able to help Hisui. I was ready to go look for Sesshoumaru, just in case…” he trailed off, not daring to finish the sentence.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sango looked at Inuyasha with her round eyes and then smiled at him, realizing that even though Kagome wasn’t there, Inuyasha was taking care of them, the same way Kagome would do. She smiled at him and said, “You know, I come here every week and talk to the Goshinboku, I feel like I’m talking to her, in a way,” Sango admitted to him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She never dared to bring Kagome up when Inuyasha was around. Kagome meant a lot to everybody but she knew that it was a very special topic for Inuyasha and even though he tried to convince everyone that he was okay, Sango could see that the mention of her was painful to him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I know, every time I come here it reeks of you and your family,” Inuyasha replied teasingly. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Sorry about that,” she said, laughing for the first time in a week. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s alright, we all need a way to remember her,” he said, looking at the tree. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They stayed in silence for a few minutes, enjoying the calmness of the night. Sango took the opportunity to look at Inuyasha and really study him. He looked so young, it seemed as if time had frozen for him, barely looking a couple of months older than he used to be when they used to fight demons and travel across Japan by foot, almost ten years ago. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“All I need to do is survive, Sango, and sometimes I’m afraid I’m not going to make it,” Inuyasha admitted. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sango looked at him with wide eyes. “Are you going to meet her in the future?” Sango asked, knowing it was an obvious question. She didn’t know what to say, she wasn’t used to seeing Inuyasha so vulnerable.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I will do my best, but I don’t know what the future holds. I haven’t seen any demons in the future; I wasn’t able to smell even one. How I am going to survive five hundred years, Sango?” he looked right at her and she could see the concern and pain on his face. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sango’s face softened and she had the urge to hug him, but she knew Inuyasha wouldn’t like that. Instead, she got closer to him and put a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it slightly. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I know you would see her again, Inuyasha,” she reassured him. “Love always finds a way.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Even though Inuyasha simply nodded and shrugged it off, he didn’t pull away. She knew that’s exactly what he needed to hear. </span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>Sango was sitting down on the tree, tears silently running down her face. Miroku was gone and she didn’t know what to do. They lived a happy life, she couldn’t complain, but that didn’t make his departure any less painful. She knew the day would come and it seemed that even Miroku knew, since the day before leaving this world he said some of the most beautiful things he had ever said to her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>For the past month, Miroku had been writing about his life, he said he wanted to share his story with the world because he started as a monk with a death sentence and was about to go as the luckiest man alive. He said he was sure his story would reach Kagome, and he even sent a message to her. For the past month, he had been reading his writing to her every night, and the day before parting, he had finished writing the last of his book.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sango shook her head with a smile on her face. That was Miroku, the man that made her feel everything. He made her feel alive again, he made her feel like everything was possible. She was ready to die for him and to live for him. She wanted to give him everything, to love him deeply…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>You gave me everything, Sango, you did,” Miroku said as he held her wrinkled hands with his own. “I’m so glad you said yes to me all those years ago,” he added with a smile. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Hoshi-sama...” she replied, taken aback by his sudden confession. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“I just wanted you to know that you made me the happiest man alive, you gave me the girls and you gave me Hisui. They are everything I’ve ever wanted and more,” he kissed her hands and then gave her a kiss in the lips. “Thank you for trusting this ill-behaved monk. I love you, Sango.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>They wished each other a good night and they went to bed. The next day, he was gone.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She knew this day would come, and she had no regrets, she loved him fully and they built something beautiful together. They had the life that they both wanted but they thought they would never get. </span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>It was getting harder every day to get to the Goshinboku; if it weren’t for Inuyasha and his young body she would never get there by herself. She still insisted on going, and Inuyasha would always carry her there and leave her alone for a few minutes so she could talk to her friend. She knew she was close to being reunited with Miroku and she was happy to see her children become parents of their own. She loved the fact that her children had the same habit of hers to come to talk to the tree and find all the right answers. It had become a </span>
  <em>
    <span>family thing</span>
  </em>
  <span> to protect and sort their feelings under the Goshinboku.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You ready?” she heard Inuyasha behind her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Could you promise me something, Inuyasha?” she asked, not even bothering to reply to his question. “Could you tell</span>
  <em>
    <span> her</span>
  </em>
  <span> our story and tell her that she was always on our mind?” she asked with tears in her eyes.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Keh, of course I will tell her about you, don’t ask stupid questions.” Sango could see that Inuyasha was offended by her question and she just smiled, as she slowly climbed on his back. </span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sango was walking towards a hut, she didn’t know where she was but she felt at peace, everything was quiet and beautiful. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m proud of you, Sango,” she heard a voice say. She looked right next to her and saw her father, walking alongside her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Father?” she asked, as she realized she was young and she was able to freely move again. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yes, Sango. You should know that your mother and I are proud of how strong you are and the amazing life that you have lived. You are a true warrior,” his father continued. “And I, as head of the village, want to thank you for carrying the slayers’ values in every aspect of your life; you have not only made me proud, you have made our entire village proud,” his father finished as he put a hand on her shoulder. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sango didn’t know what to say. She didn’t understand what was happening but she was happy to see and hear her father again. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Thank you, father,” she replied, holding back the tears. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“There is someone very eager to see you, he’s been waiting for you,” he added as he pointed towards the hut she was initially walking towards. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sango looked again and started walking towards the hut again, drawn by it. Who was waiting for her? </span>
  <em>
    <span>Could it be…?</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She crossed the door of the hut and was blinded by a light. She covered her eyes and waited for her sight to adjust. She was able to see that the light was coming from a fire. There was a man sitting next to it, waiting for the stew to be ready. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hello, Sango, I’ve been waiting for you,” Miroku said with a smile. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hoshi-sama…” she replied and ran towards him, hugging him so tightly that she almost knocked him to the floor.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Suddenly, they were young again, and they were finally reunited. </span>
</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Okaay, I can't believe I posted this!! I was so sure I wasn't going to be able to write this whole chapter. But I ended up writing it and crying like a baby while doing it. </p><p>I hope you like this little bit of Sango, I wanted to tell her story! Thank you so much for the awesome reviews I've been getting, the amount of love for this story is overwhelming. This story holds a very special place in my heart, so I'm very happy that you are liking it too. </p><p>I just want to tell you that the angst part is almost over, and the fluff will begin. We will see each other again in a few days, for the InuKag prompt!!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. I Want to Be With You</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Kagome and Inuyasha reunite after so long. It has been five years for her and five hundred years for him. Both suffered enough and both waited long enough. What's going to happen now?</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hello there! I'm back! Happy New Year!</p><p>I'm deeply sorry I wasn't around to finish this story for Inuvember but life came up (and it sucked) and I wasn't in the right headspace to write this story in a way that made it justice. And good thing I didn't force myself to post this because when I looked back at what I had written... oh boy. It was awful. I had to rewrite everything and I changed the direction this chapter was taking. </p><p>Last, but not least, this chapter is barely edited, so please bear with me!</p><p>I truly hope that you like this since I'm really happy with how it turned out. Everything has been angst and pain so far, let's start the healing, shall we?</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Inuyasha didn’t know how it happened. One moment he was looking at Kagome and the next he was holding her in his arms. She was hugging him in a tight embrace as she cried her heart out.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I missed you, Kagome,” he whispered into his hair, as he hugged her tighter. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I missed you, too, Inuyasha,” Kagome replied, her words barely audible but he could still understand them. Inuyasha felt Kagome shift and when he looked down he was greeted with a pair of brown eyes, looking right back at him. “What happened? How are you here?” she asked as she looked at the Well House. “Does the well work again?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And there it was: </span>
  <em>
    <span>hope</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Hope for a life that was not possible, hope for a future that was ripped from both of them. Inuyasha felt a pang in his chest as he realized he would have to tell Kagome the truth. “No, Kagome,” he said as he hugged her once again, afraid to say it out loud, as it could shatter her. “The well never reopened,” he confessed. “I just managed to survive,” he took a deep breath and continued, “I just managed to survive five hundred years…”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He could feel Kagome tensing in his arms. He knew </span>
  <em>
    <span>the question</span>
  </em>
  <span> was coming, it was a matter of seconds. Kagome moved one step away from him, just enough for him to see her tear-stained face. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You survived </span>
  <em>
    <span>five hundred years</span>
  </em>
  <span>? You’ve been here this whole time?” she inquired with her round eyes. Inuyasha wouldn’t admit how wrong it felt to not have her body against his, how much he had missed that.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Why now, Inuyasha? Why didn’t you come back sooner?” He could sense Kagome’s pain in her words. Even though he knew she would ask that, he also knew he would never have the right answer to that question.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I… I came here the same day the well closed, Kagome, I swear I did. But when I saw you… You were a teenage girl, and I looked like this… I looked like a twenty-five-year-old man. It didn’t feel right,” Inuyasha said and looked away, bracing himself from whatever Kagome could throw at him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kagome stood there for a few seconds, contemplating what he had just said. He saw her looking at him, studying him. He saw how her big round eyes, filled with tears looked at him and tried to understand him. Tried to understand everything that was happening. She saw her closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Kagome, I know it’s wasn’t fair-”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s okay Inuyasha. It doesn’t matter, I’m happy you are here,” Kagome cut him in and hugged him once again. “If you waited five hundred years to meet me again, I can wait five years just to see you again,” she simply stated.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Inuyasha hugged her once again, relieved that he was able to get that confession out of his chest. He was relieved that this conversation happened after five years of picturing it on his mind. He was relieved Kagome understood. That was his Kagome, she always saw the good in others; she always tried to understand.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They stood like that for a few seconds, enjoying the sensation of being in each other’s arms.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Inuyasha, I-” Kagome was about to say something, but someone calling her name cut her in.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Kagome! Are you okay?” she heard her mother shout near the Goshinboku.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I believe they are looking for you, birthday girl,” he whispered in her ear. “Happy birthday, Kagome.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kagome laughed as she cleaned the tears from her face. “Thank you,” she whispered back and looked at him with her big brown eyes. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You should go, your mother is looking for you and she sounds worried,” Inuyasha said, squeezing her shoulder and starting to push her away from their embrace, letting her go.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You are insane if you believe I’m leaving your side!” Kagome fought back just to hug him again. “I’m not going anywhere, I don’t care, Inuyasha. I lost you once, I’m not losing you again.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Inuyasha could feel the panic in Kagome’s voice and he felt a hole in his chest where he was sure his heart was a few seconds ago. He sighed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Kagome, I’m not going anywhere,” he reassured her as he took her face between his hands.  “I will be waiting for you here. Go talk to your mother, change your clothes, and once you are done I will be here and I will take you to your house, deal?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Inuyasha could see how the wheels were turning in Kagome’s head. She was so afraid to even blink as if he would be gone in any second. She was delusional if she thought that there was any way he could leave her, especially now that he knew Kagome wanted him in her life. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He was about to say something else, to make her feel safe and let her know that he wasn’t going anywhere, but something cut his train of thought: he felt Kagome’s soft lips on his own. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>After all those years of dreaming that exact moment, he needed to admit that he didn’t do any justice to Kagome’s lips: they were soft and sweet in a way he wasn’t able to put into words. At first, it was a shy kiss, one that resembled that first kiss they shared inside the Shikon Jewel all those years ago. But, when Kagome parted her lips to deepen the kiss, Inuyasha lost it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He put his right hand on the back of her neck and she wrapped her arms around him. He kissed her like there was no tomorrow. He knew that feeling very well, until a minute ago he didn’t know if they weren’t going to have a tomorrow at all. He kissed her the way he wished to have done it all those years ago. He wondered if Kagome was thinking of the last kiss they shared and how they didn’t know it was a goodbye. Did she feel the same way?  Inuyasha could feel Kagome’s body pressed against his, trying to be as close to him as possible and he welcomed her, elated to know that she felt the same way. This time, it was different. This time wasn’t a goodbye, this time felt like a beginning.   </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>After kissing for what could have been some time between forever and five seconds, Inuyasha broke the kiss and looked at her. “You need to go, your mother is really worried about you, she thinks something bad happened to you since you were supposed to be done by now,” he told her while trying to recover his breath after their kiss. “I’ll be waiting for you at the bottom of the stairs of the shrine, I will be right next to my motorcycle,” he reassured her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Your motorcycle?” Kagome asked as she raised her brow.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“A lot can happen in five hundred years,” he joked and smiled. “Now go, I’ll explain to you later,” he finished and kissed her goodbye. It wasn’t a kiss like before, this was a soft kiss that held the promise of tomorrow.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>One minute Kagome was kissing Inuyasha and the next one he was gone. She could feel her heart beating against her ribcage and had to put her hand on her chest as if that would help to slow it down a little. Had she just </span>
  <em>
    <span>kissed Inuyasha</span>
  </em>
  <span>? An Inuyasha that not only </span>
  <em>
    <span>waited five hundred years for her</span>
  </em>
  <span> but also drove a </span>
  <em>
    <span>motorcycle? </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“There you are, Kagome, I was looking for you!” she heard her mother say from behind. “Are you okay? Did something happen?” her mother inquired. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kagome didn’t know what to say. Should she tell her the truth? What was the truth anyway? Did she just hallucinate the whole encounter? She decided that until she was sure, she would keep Inuyasha’s presence a secret. She didn’t want to worry her mother, the same mother that saw how she crumbled to pieces at the idea of losing him once.  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No, Momma, I’m okay,” she lied. “I was just overwhelmed with memories, but I’m fine,” she continued. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Her mother hugged her and sighed. “I know things are still hard for you, but I’m proud of you Kagome, I truly admire how strong you are,” her mother whispered to her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kagome hugged her mother back and her stomach plummeted because of how guilty she felt. She knew she should tell her mother about Inuyasha but the truth was she wasn’t even sure that he was real or if the kiss actually happened. “Thank you, Momma,” was everything she could say.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Don’t you have a party to go to?” her mother teased with a smile. “You need to go and change, you are not going to a bar and drink alcohol dressed as a Miko, young woman!” she continued as she nudged her side with an elbow.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The walk to the house was silent, her mother had an arm around her and she was lost in her thoughts. What was she going to do? Was she going to go to a bar with her friends? Should she cancel the party with her friends and stay with Inuyasha? Suddenly, thinking about Inuyasha waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs of the Shrine made her </span>
  <em>
    <span>feel things</span>
  </em>
  <span>. She was actually having feelings that she thought she would never have again: she could feel the </span>
  <em>
    <span>butterflies</span>
  </em>
  <span> in her stomach, and her heart was speeding up the same way it used to do all those years ago, anytime she would get close to him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Was that actually Inuyasha? </span>
  <em>
    <span>Her Inuyasha?</span>
  </em>
  <span> Could it be possible? Could it be real? What if she had finally lost it? Not able to live without him, maybe her mind made him up and she just kissed a random stranger, maybe that was it; maybe she had finally lost it. Kagome sighed, </span>
  <em>
    <span>had she really lost it?</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kagome realized that she didn’t care. She felt more alive than she had felt for the past four years. She felt more alive than ever and she embraced all those contradictory thoughts she was having. Maybe it was a trick, but she didn’t care. She was ready to feel, to wake up, to live again. She was done feeling numb. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She got to her room and changed out of her Miko clothes faster than she thought it was possible, she carefully laid the clothes on her old bed and grabbed her purse. She grabbed her cellphone and sent a few text messages to her friends, telling them that she didn’t feel good and that she needed to reschedule her birthday celebration. A small smile started to form in the corner of her mouth, remembering all the lies her grandfather had to tell when she was a teenager. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Old habits die hard</span>
  </em>
  <span>. She received a few text messages from her worried friends, urging her to rest and recover. She felt a little guilty at the idea of having her friends worrying over her, but she knew this was something that she had to do. Putting her cellphone away, she headed downstairs. After saying goodbye to her mother and her brother she left the house in a hurry, saying that she didn’t feel good and that she was going to go to her house and rest. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Yeah, sure. Rest… </span>
  </em>
  <span>Kagome laughed at how stupid she felt at that moment. Was it okay to lie to her family, too? She never hid Inuyasha from them, but this time it felt different. What if it was a trick? What if it was a mistake? She needed to find that out by herself. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She walked down the stairs almost running, her heart beating so loud she was starting to hear a beep. The first thing she saw was a motorcycle parked next to the entrance to the Shrine and that alone made her lose her step and almost fall down the rest of the stairs. Kagome thought she was going to break her ankle but something caught her and prevented her from falling. The minute she felt those hands on her, holding her and protecting her from even the dumbest of harm; her hopes rose up. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Inuyasha was real</span>
  </em>
  <span>, he was right </span>
  <em>
    <span>there</span>
  </em>
  <span>. She kept telling herself, reassuring herself that it wasn’t her mind playing tricks on her.  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Are you really going to get killed after I finally got the courage to face you?” he teased her, fake exasperation in his voice. </span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Kagome tried to fight the tears that were building in the corner of her eyes but she couldn’t. She was so happy to have him again, to see him again. She did the only thing she could do: she hugged him and she cried. She cried for all those years that she thought that she would never see him again, she cried those tears of happiness she thought she would never spill because the idea of being reunited with him seemed impossible. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kagome knew Inuyasha didn’t like crying, but somehow he understood that she needed to cry, she needed to let all the pain she had been holding for the past four years go away. She needed to let go of all of that in order to be able to enjoy the fact that he was right there, next to her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s okay, Kagome, you are okay, I’m here,” Inuyasha said while hugging her back and patting the back of her head, soothing her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m sorry, it’s just that even though this was the thing I wanted most in the world, I never thought I would actually get it,” Kagome replied between sobs. She knew it sounded corny, she knew she sounded stupid, but she didn’t care. She was just happy and overwhelmed in a good way. Being next to him, she felt whole again. She felt like she was able to breathe again.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Where should I take you? I heard you are going to a bar with some friends,” Inuyasha said, looking down at her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kagome fumbled in his arms and broke the hug to look at him, “Are you kidding me? I’m not getting away from you, Inuyasha, I just got you back, I’m not going to a bar, I want to be with you!” She could feel her fierceness coming back to her, the only fierceness </span>
  <em>
    <span>he</span>
  </em>
  <span> was able to wake up in her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Kagome…” he said with a stern look on his face. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No, Inuyasha, we are not discussing this. You decided to show up </span>
  <em>
    <span>now</span>
  </em>
  <span>, well, I’m deciding to be with you </span>
  <em>
    <span>now</span>
  </em>
  <span>, not with my friends. I already talked to them and canceled, so there is no backing out now,” she crossed her arms in front of her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“This is not how things are supposed to be, you are not supposed to leave your life aside just to be with me, Kagome. This is not the same as five hundred years ago,” he confessed, frustration building up inside of him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I know Inuyasha, lying to my friends it’s not something I’m proud of, but </span>
  <em>
    <span>I</span>
  </em>
  <span> need this. I have questions, I need answers. Do you truly believe I would be able to be with my friends knowing that </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> are here? What I want to do most in the world is talk to you, Inuyasha. I want to </span>
  <em>
    <span>be with you</span>
  </em>
  <span>, I want to know everything, I-”. Kagome would have kept talking if it weren’t for Inuyasha's lips on top of hers. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>His lips felt like fire, they were hungry and desperate. Every little thing Inuyasha did showed her there was still a place in her body for new sensations. Kagome didn’t take long before putting her arms around his neck, deepening the kiss. Was it possible for her to be so attracted to him? Was it possible for her body to react so much at the mere touch of his lips, of his hands? When Inuyasha played with her lower lip, a soft moan escaped from her mouth. She knew she should be ashamed of such a public display of affection, and she was surprised to realize Inuyasha didn’t care either. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But what did the people know about them? She honestly didn’t care, they had been through so much together. They deserved this. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kagome broke the kiss and tried to steady herself, while Inuyasha hugged her, putting his arms around her waist. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You have no idea how much I missed the fierceness within you, Kagome,” was all Inuyasha said while he grabbed her and put his head in the crook of her neck. She trembled at the tickle of his breath on her skin. This was new, this whole thing was new to them but still felt somehow familiar, like coming back to your home after a long journey. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I didn’t know I still had it in me,” she shyly admitted. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Inuyasha let go of her and looked her in the eyes. “Do you want to go to my place so we can talk about, well, everything?” he asked her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kagome was still trying to process the fact that somehow, Inuyasha managed to survive five hundred years just to be with her. He has been through a lot, has lived enough lifetimes to write hundreds of books and he now was a functioning adult, </span>
  <em>
    <span>with his own house and all</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Your place?” was everything Kagome could say.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What? Did you expect me to still be living on a tree?” the hanyou in front of her jokingly asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kagome rolled her eyes and realized how dumb her question was and wanted to smack her head with something. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s actually a little far from here. I needed to keep my distance,” Inuyasha confessed, shrugging it off. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Sure, let’s go,” she said. Somehow she was waiting for him to kneel in front of her, so she could climb on his back like they used to. Suddenly, Inuyasha grabbed the extra helmet on his bike and tossed it over to her. She looked at it for a few seconds, trying to understand what it meant. Of course she knew what it was, it’s just that it seemed so off when she tried to place it next to Inuyasha. She was sure Inuyasha thought that during those five years apart she had suffered a seizure or something. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Great, make him regret waiting five hundred years for you, Kagome.</span>
  </em>
  
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Is running too old-fashioned for you now?”  she teasingly asked, while putting the helmet on. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Inuyasha laughed at Kagome’s joke. It was a sound that made Kagome’s legs feel weak like they could give out in any second.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We can go running whenever you want, Kagome. But I won’t leave my bike here and hop on a tree when everyone’s watching. Come on, get on, </span>
  <em>
    <span>wench</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” he said and smiled at her. </span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>She carefully sat down on the backseat and put her arms around Inuyasha. She could feel the heat of his body irradiating through his clothes and it struck her like lightning. She felt more at home than she had ever felt in what it felt like forever. She missed his warmth, she missed his smell, she missed him so much that she needed to take a deep breath to recover and avoid crying once again. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Oh boy, she was definitely going to cry a lot that day.</span>
  </em>
  
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Are you okay?” Inuyasha asked, at her sudden change in behavior.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I am now,” was the only thing Kagome could say. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Inuyasha nodded and started his bike.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>He never thought everything was going to escalate that quickly. He thought he was going to be in Kagome’s life as a friend but the minute he walked into her life it was like a magnet had been turned on. He never expected her to kiss him the minute he showed up, but she did. His body called to her, he needed to have her close and it seemed that her body wanted him close, too. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>When he was waiting next to his bike, he thought that the kiss was because the emotions were too high, and being reunited felt exhilarating. But then, the minute he saw her again he couldn’t keep his hands away from her. What surprised him was that Kagome didn’t mind the intimacy at all, he paid very close attention to her reactions to his movements. He knew he had to be careful because he didn’t want to overstep any boundaries, but their bodies remembered each other and were begging for them to be close. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kagome had asked to quickly stop by her house, so she could pick up a few things she said she needed. He was patiently waiting while Kagome was at her apartment, not daring to go with her. He needed a few minutes to be alone with his thoughts. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>When they were arguing about Kagome going to the bar with her friends, he suddenly felt alive again. With the years his temper had tone down a few notches, but suddenly Kagome’s presence ignited a fire within him. It was right then when he knew, they were reunited and they belonged to each other. It was perfectly clear to him that they were not the same teenagers who fell in love all those years ago, but their souls remembered each other and they were meant to be together. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>After all those years she suddenly was in his life again, challenging him and turning his life upside down. He wanted to do everything for her, to give her everything. She was the only reason he stayed alive all those years. She saved him in every possible way, always being that light in his heart that made him </span>
  <em>
    <span>want to survive, to make it out alive</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Suddenly, he felt his right pocket vibrate. He tucked his hand in it and grabbed his cellphone. He had received a text message from Shippo.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>How is it going? Did you meet her? I swear to God, Inuyasha, if you didn’t go there I will kill you.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Inuyasha sighed at the text message. He understood how Shippo felt, when it came to Kagome he had waited long and patiently </span>
  <em>
    <span>enough</span>
  </em>
  <span>, but he still needed to set some boundaries. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>She asked to stop by her apartment for a few minutes. Then we are going to my place to talk and sort some things out. Let you know how that went tomorrow. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sent.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He then pressed the red button on his cellphone for a few seconds until the screen on his phone went dark. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Boundaries… set.</span>
  </em>
  
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“So now you even have a cell phone? You will have to give me your number,” he heard Kagome playfully say behind him and he turned around. She had changed clothes, wearing a pair of jeans and a blouse. Those clothes seemed comfier than the ones she was previously wearing. She also had a backpack with her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Going on a trip? I thought you said you wanted to talk,” he asked, pretended to be offended by the change of plans. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Don’t be an idiot, I know I’m staying the night at your place and I needed to grab some things,” Kagome replied, unaware of what she might have been implying. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Inuyasha couldn’t help but feel something inside of him steer, his heartbeat accelerating. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He could see how Kagome realized what she had just said and her face turned completely red. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I also needed to feed Buyo, I haven’t been here all day,” she added, trying to change the subject. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Buyo? Is that cat still alive?” he asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Of course she is! She’s only 7 years old! And I hope she lives another 7 or 10 years more,” she happily replied. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“One can only hope…” Inuyasha jokingly added, rolling his eyes. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You are mad at her because she scratched you all those years ago,” she teased him. She was such a tease, it was going to be the death of me. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Inuyasha turned around and ignored her. Oh, how much he had missed their bantering. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Shall we go?” he said, handing her the helmet once again. Kagome grabbed it and looked at it with disappointment in her eyes. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Inuyasha started the bike and made a mental note to go running with her in the morning. </span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Overwhelmed. Kagome was overwhelmed, to say the least. She was sure she was dreaming and she was afraid to wake up. She was afraid of what she might do if she woke up and everything that was happening might turn out to be a dream.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She looked at the elevator doors as she waited for them to finally open once they reached Inuyasha’s floor. Inuyasha lived in a fancy building and his doorman loved him. Those were the only things she could wrap her mind around. She was grabbing the straps of her backpack with such a force that her knuckles were turning white.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>When she was alone in her apartment, Kagome had a few minutes to gather her thoughts. She grabbed Buyo and hugged her tightly and tried to assimilate everything that had happened in the last few hours.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She was sure that Inuyasha and her would probably spend the whole night talking so she decided to grab her toothbrush and blushed. Should she change clothes? Should she change her underwear? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>What are you thinking?</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She sighed once more while quickly changing clothes. She decided to go for it and change her underwear. Even though she kept reassuring herself she was just being stupid and nothing would happen; she had been unable to deny there was something else there. Of course, they had been shy teenagers when they last saw each other, but they were adults now. Inuyasha had lived </span>
  <em>
    <span>for centuries</span>
  </em>
  <span>, so she was sure he wasn’t a virgin, right? And she… well, she wasn’t a virgin either. It’s not like she was well-versed but she had a few sexual encounters. She had tried to move on with her life.  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But now they were there, at the front door of Inuyasha’s apartment, and the anxiety was too high. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>What if she asked the wrong questions? What if they found out they have changed too much? What if they are not compatible as adults? What if Inuyasha worshipped her too much and forgot about all her imperfections? What if this older -</span>
  <em>
    <span>wiser- </span>
  </em>
  <span>version of Inuyasha is not someone she could fall for? What if </span>
  <em>
    <span>she</span>
  </em>
  <span> is the one that worshipped him? Could they still remain friends?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She could feel Inuyasha’s eyes on her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I need a drink,” was all she could say. The color was leaving her face, she didn’t need a mirror to know that. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Inuyasha obliged and she was sure he had used his </span>
  <em>
    <span>hanyou speed</span>
  </em>
  <span> because in a matter of seconds a glass with sake was on her hands. She grabbed it and drank it, not really paying attention to how good it tasted. She had had cheap sake and she could tell that was not it. But her mind was processing a thousand things and she wouldn't dare to pay attention to anything else. She tried to calm down and gather her thoughts. What if she didn’t ask the right questions? Her Inuyasha would understand, </span>
  <em>
    <span>wouldn’t he</span>
  </em>
  <span>? She just needed to start asking just one question and then building her way up. She could do that, right?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She decided to start with a question that was bugging her and won’t leave her alone, an easy one. “Can I ask you something, Inuyasha?” Kagome asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Shoot,” he replied with a smirk. They were sitting on the kitchen island of his house. Even though the building seemed to be fancy, his apartment was quite simple. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She felt stupid asking this, but she had so many questions that this one seemed the only one she could handle right now, “Where are your ears?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p><span>Inuyasha laughed at her concern but replied nonetheless. “They are right here, you just can’t see them,” he said while pointing at the top of his head. He gulped down the drink and </span>grabbed the ring on his finger. He waited a few seconds and then removed it.</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Suddenly Kagome was surrounded by his </span>
  <em>
    <span>youki</span>
  </em>
  <span>. She finally, </span>
  <em>
    <span>finally,</span>
  </em>
  <span> felt like she had found that missing piece: she had missed his </span>
  <em>
    <span>youki</span>
  </em>
  <span> so much. That presence that used to surround her all the time when they were traveling in the Feudal Era. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The man sitting next to her was </span>
  <em>
    <span>her Inuyasha</span>
  </em>
  <span> and there was no doubt about it. She felt all the anxiety leave her body. She knew it might be difficult but everything would be okay, they were finally reunited and they were going to be okay. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She could hear a loud beep in her ears as she covered her mouth. She thought she had shed enough tears for the day but her body was once again proving her wrong. Seeing his ears, his golden eyes, his silver mane… it was too much to handle. She felt lightheaded and attempted to grab the table to avoid falling from her booth, but Inuyasha was there in an instant. Holding her and taking care like he always did. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Are you okay?” he softly asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yes, It’s just… Seeing you with your ears and the hair... It’s too much,” she replied. And the eyes, those same eyes that were on every dream and she was never able to forget. They were there, staring at her with the same intensity she remembered. She blinked rapidly, trying to make her tears go away, “I’m sorry, I know I keep crying, it’s just that I can’t believe this is happening,” she said while she looked away.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Kagome, stop apologizing for crying,” he said, giving her some solace. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Inuyasha was so close to her that she could feel the little puffs of breath on her face. She was surprised by her actions but she didn’t care. Inuyasha was finally there and she wasn’t going to let shyness get in the way of doing what she wanted most. She tossed caution to the wind and kissed him again. Everything that was happening was a rollercoaster but she decided she might as well enjoy the ride. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The minute their lips touched, Kagome could swear she heard a groan coming from Inuyasha’s throat as he pulled her closer to him. She clung to him as if her life depended on him, feeling him, tasting him. He was strong and his body felt chiseled by the Gods. He was so strong that he was able to sit her on the table with no effort at all, as he put himself between her legs and hugged her closer, deepening the kiss. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She knew she had a thousand questions left to ask, but she didn’t care. She was being kissed by Inuyasha and that’s all that mattered. She would ask those questions the next day, right now she would enjoy the fact that she was finally reunited with him.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Oh well, THAT happened. This was supposed to be kinda the last chapter for this story but I kept having so many ideas and I ended up really enjoying writing these two and their relationship so... I think we have two chapters + epilogue left? Since I didn't finish it for Inuvember, I see no harm in writing a little bit more than originally planned. </p><p>I would love to have this story finished by the end of January, if not, mid-February, so I truly hope you start getting frequent updates from now on :)</p><p>Thank you so much for reading this story, leaving feedback, and sharing it. It truly means the world to me!! &lt;3!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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